For a decade starting in 1906, Emma Goldman made annual treks across America, lecturing to support Mother Earth magazine. She traveled thousands of miles by train, horse-drawn carriage, and a new conveyance, the automobile.

Speaking in English, German, and sometimes Yiddish, Goldman chose topics ranging from the virtues of free love to the struggles of the working class. She attracted large crowds in some cities, small groups of listeners in others, and police arrest on a few occasions. In 1910 alone 40,000 people came to hear her.